I read the email on Victoria,s threatened orchids with interest. I could not work out the point of the email but I have been very busy recently and have not read the bulletins for a month or so. I work as a volunteer with some of these orchids. Firstly a few corrections. There are about 400 orchid species in Victoria with about 60 being threatened under IUCN criteria . The threatened orchids have active recovery plans and recovery teams working with them . Some of this work includes monitoring current populations, planning effective recovery, sowing seed to establish expanded populations, searching for new habitat and sites that the orchid fungi grows and analyisis of known data.
For about 40 of them there is ex situ work being undertaken including growing plants to suppliment populations or establishing new populations, establishing seed orchards and seed for long term storage. One orchid species has expanded from a few orchids to many hundreds including the expansion to several sites from which they had dissappeared. Another has been expanded from one site to three with numbers up from a handful to about 150. For another orchid where all its habitat has been lost to suburbia and plant numbers were down to a handful, potential sites have been evaluated and a site chosen and recently 300 plants were planted out. Another 100 will be planted out in February and a further 300 in May. After evaluation, further plantings will be made. One of the special features about orchid recovery in Victoria is the way Government officers, Threatened Species personal, Universities, Botanic Gardens, Zoos, The Native Orchid Societies, Field Naturalists, Friends Groups and other volunteers are all working together. And while there are orchids whose future is not secure there is a lot of effective energy working for the best possible outcome. Dick Thomson Melbourne Victoria _______________________________________________ the OrchidGuide Digest (OGD) [email protected] http://orchidguide.com/mailman/listinfo/orchids_orchidguide.com
